When it comes to his shadow run for Senate, Harold Ford is a New Yorker through and through. When…
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Shadow New York Senate candidate Harold Ford spent all week mushing through the snow pretending to know where he lives. But next month he'll be relaxing in the warm sun of Bermuda and speaking to a group that works to preserve the small island as a haven for American companies looking to avoid paying taxes, without all that stigma of being a "tax haven."

BIBA's primary argument seems to be that Bermuda is not a "tax haven" (which sounds bad) but merely has a "favorable tax structure" (good!). Here's how BIBA's former chairman described companies who set up a Bermuda P.O. Box in 2002 to a Knight Ridder reporter:

"It's not tax evasion," said Raymond Medeiros, past chairman of the Bermuda International Business Association and a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. "No one is doing anything illicit or criminal not to pay taxes. It's tax avoidance, and that's legitimate."

Sounds familiar!

And it actually clears up a little matter in Ford's legislative record. Ford voted to "end offshore tax havens" in 2004 as a congressman, which would make him a strange choice for BIBA's keynote speaker. But it's clear that he's all for tax avoidance, which is totally cool. Meanwhile, now Ford has fewer taxes to worry about avoiding — he's been suspended as an MSNBC analyst while he mulls his Senate bid to avoid conflicts of interest.